Before we begin, one thing I didn’t realize when I wrote the Playoff Preview. Points reset after each round of the playoffs. Drivers do, however, keep the playoff points they’ve accumulated from race wins, stage wins, and regular season points position, though not for the championship race. So just as Kevin Harvick started the playoffs with 57 points because of his seven wins (35 total points), seven stage wins (7 more points), and regular season championship (15 more points), he’ll start the Round of 12 with at least 62 points—the 57 he already had, plus the five from winning last night. Assuming he makes the Round of 8, he’ll start with 62 plus whatever he accumulates over these next five races. Confused? That’s ok. NASCAR, like the NIT and the Europa League, is hard. That’s why you’re here.
Now, what happened yesterday:
Before the race even began, Ryan Blaney lost ten points because his team left a five-pound bag of lead in the car, a rules violation that also resulted in his crew chief having to sit out the race. If you’re wondering if things got better for Blaney, they didn’t. He finished last of the 16 playoff drivers, in 24th place, and is now tied for last in the playoff standings.
The first stage wasn’t exactly quiet. Someone (it sounded like Bubba Wallace but NASCAR kept saying it wasn’t but Wallace did eventually have to drop out because of a transmission problem) was leaking fluid. Brad Keselowski got into the wall, drawing a caution and hurting his playoff standing. Besides that, though, nothing too notable went down, and Martin Truex Jr. eventually passed Chase Elliott, held the lead from there, and won the stage, earning him a point he can take with him if he makes the Round of 12.
The second stage was busier, from the jump. Blaney had to pit with a flat tire as the race was coming back to green. Elliott hit the wall, and while the damage wasn’t major, it did throw off his handling. Green flag pit stops began, and in the middle of them, Bubba Wallace spun out, drawing a caution flag and bringing Keselowski—who had yet to pit—back onto the lead lap, as well as Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto via a wave around (which is evidently a thing where if lapped cars don’t pit under caution, they get waved around the pace car with a lap to go under caution so that when the race restarts, it restarts with lead-lap cars in front. Meanwhile, Cole Custer took a penalty for speeding on pit road and had to drop to the back of the field. So, all playoff drivers were back on the lead lap, though DiBenedetto got lapped again before Truex took the Stage Two victory and another potential point for the Round of 12.
Then, the third stage began:
Disclaimer: I don’t know if all these things were the same incident, but they happened in pretty rapid succession, and the bottom line was they brought out another caution and brought DiBenedetto back onto the lead lap.
After the caution, a split developed between drivers who were going to try to make it the rest of the way on one pit stop (Truex, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Keselowski, and DiBenedetto among playoff drivers) and those who intended to pit twice, sacrificing time for fresher tires towards the end. Bowyer had a tire issue and had to pit earlier than intended. Eventually, Truex and the rest all pitted, but Denny Hamlin had to make two attempts after he missed pit road on the first attempt:
Then…another caution. For debris. Meaning a reset of pit strategy and a restart with Elliott, Harvick, Truex, and Austin Dillon all in the top five, and Blaney either a lap down or soon to be a lap down.
Elliott and Truex began to pull away, but with fifteen laps to go…more trouble:
Big trouble (Elliott is the No. 9—didn’t pit, but not too fast after the contact).
And the end result was…
As a side note, yes, Dillon’s paint scheme’s pretty cool. Lot of throwback schemes this weekend. Think that was an official thing but no way to know for sure.
Cool paint or not, Dillon couldn’t catch Harvick, but the pair did finish in the front of the field, followed by Logano. William Byron finished fifth. Alex Bowman—who’d lost ground on a pit stop earlier when his team’s jack broke—was sixth. Kyle Busch was seventh, Kurt Busch was eighth. Aric Almirola was ninth. Bowyer tenth. Keselowski finished eleventh, with Custer and Hamlin twelfth and thirteenth. Elliott wound up 20th. DiBenedetto 21st. Truex 22nd. Blaney, as mentioned, 24th.
So, with two races to go in the Round of 16, here’s where we stand, with Harvick automatically advancing by having won:
1. Harvick (106 points)
2. Hamlin (87)
3. Logano (60)
4. Keselowski (55)
5. Bowman (52)
6. Truex (49)
7. Elliott (45)
8. Dillon (43)
9. Byron (42)
10. Kyle Busch (40)
11. Kurt Busch (37)
12. Almirola (33)
13. Bowyer (33)*
14. Custer (30)
15. DiBenedetto (16)
16. Blaney (16)
*I think Bowyer’s behind Almirola because Almirola has one more playoff point. Seems like that’s the tiebreaker? Not sure.
Nobody’s dead, though DiBenedetto and Blaney both have work to do. Truex and Elliott have beef now, that’s good, because we haven’t had good beef in a while. Next race Saturday at Richmond. After that, the following Saturday at Bristol. Then, the Round of 12.
Buckle up.
